Edited by: TJVNews.com
In a shocking statement that smacks of seething resentment for the country in whose government he participates in, Israeli Minister Ahmad Tibi, who is the head of the Joint Arab List party, addressed the faction meeting recently. It was there that Tibi excoriated the government of Israel and predicted that an Arab intifada could possibly be launched next year against Israeli citizens.
According to reports in Israeli newspapers, Tibi said on Monday that, “This government is indeed right-wing. This is reflected in budgets for settlements more than before. We visited Borkha and the cell yesterday, we saw the results of settler violence and military violence.”
“A year of confrontation and intifada. In addition this week there will be a plowing law. The Joint List will vote against it as it harms the land reserves in Wadi Ara. We would prefer the law to be frozen, but the Joint List, even if left alone, will vote against this law,” Tibi added.
Tibi’s assertion that violence emanating from the Jewish settlement movement (purportedly directed against Arabs in Judea and Samaria) has increased and even spiraled out of control has been proven erroneous by the facts themselves.
In an article entitled, “Jewish vs Arab Violence” written by prolific Israeli commentator and news analyst Yisrael Medad, it was noted that the Rescuers Without Borders paramedical organization in Israel has reported that in the past two and a half months they recorded 315 rock-throwing incidents and 50 firebombs tossed at Jewish targets in the Judea and Samaria. In one night in eastern Jerusalem in the Silwan neighborhood, dozens of firebombs were thrown at Jewish homes.
Medad’s article also included the fact that the IDF data indicates that in 2020 there were 1,500 rock-throwing incidents, 229 firebombs tossed, 31 shootings, 9 stabbings, 541 guns and rifles were seized, and 330 knives were recovered.
The Shin Bet security agency recorded over 100 Palestinian terror attacks in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) in October 2021. In 2020, it reported almost 800 acts of Palestinian terror; and an additional 424 significant attacks were thwarted, as was reported by Medad in his thoroughly researched article.
“In addition, it must be recalled that whereas local and national Israeli officials have strongly condemned what some have called Jewish acts of terror, the Palestinian leadership is quite explicit in encouraging attacks on Jews. Indeed, the severity of Arab violence–car-rammings, stabbings, or shootings–is obvious but, unfortunately, downplayed,” Medad wrote.
Israel National News reported early on Tuesday that hundreds of Samaria residents are expected to arrive at the Giti Avisar junction on Tuesday evening for a demonstration against the rising tide of terrorist attacks in the region. Judea and Samaria are home to hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers.
The demonstration will be led by Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan, as well as rabbis and leaders of the communities of Samaria, as was reported by INN.
The residents will demonstrate against the helplessness of the government in the face of terrorism and to declare that Jewish blood is not cheap.
INN reported that the demonstration comes after a terrorist arrived at the Giti Avisar junction last Friday with the intention of stabbing civilians and soldiers who were stationed there, but a quick response by IDF soldiers there prevented the attack and the terrorist was neutralized. The announcement ahead of the event states that “following the attack on Giti Avisar and the growing wave of attacks, we will all gather with a clear demand–restore security in Samaria and throughout the State of Israel. We have a responsibility for this country.”
The residents also intend to protest against the illegal construction in the area around the junction, including the presence of hundreds of illegal construction workers a day, and the Civil Administration’s refusal to enforce the law against such construction and to tolerate it, causing the area to become a safety and security hazard, as was reported by INN.
Council Chairman Yossi Dagan said ahead of the demonstration: “Unfortunately we are witnessing a sharp increase in the number of terrorist attacks in Samaria as well as in the number of repeated terrorist attacks. Residents of Judea and Samaria are in daily danger. The laxity against terrorists increases terrorism and gives terrorists the feeling that they can continue to harm Jews without paying the price. I call on the Israeli government to change course as soon as possible and learn from the IDF soldiers how to fight terrorism.”
On Monday, INN reported that a bus driver was hurt when his vehicle was firebombed near Har Hatzofim (Mt. Scopus) in Jerusalem. The driver received treatment from a United Hatzalah medical team before being evacuated to the hospital in light condition. The victim was identified as a 25-year-old male.
In recent months, Israel has been plagued with an incessant spate of lone wolf attacks by Arab terrorists against Jews in Jerusalem and in the biblical heartland of the country known as Judea and Samaria.
Others have opined that an Arab intifada has already begun and will gain steam and momentum over time.
On December 16th, it was reported by INN that an Arab terrorist shooting attack in Samaria claimed the life of Yehuda Dimentman, 25, who lived in Shavei Shomron and was a student at the Homesh yeshiva. He leaves behind a wife and one-year-old child.
Two other Jews, Avia Antman and Neria Shlomo Feldman, were wounded in the shooting attack, one moderately and the other lightly. INN reported that all three victims were brought to the gate of Shavei Shomrom where they were provided initial medical treatment by United Hatzalah, Magen David Adom, and IDF medics.
The medical teams attempted to resuscitate Dimentman and ordered a helicopter to transport him to the hospital, but he succumbed to his wounds. The rest of the wounded were evacuated to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, according to the INN report.
Since the fatal shooting attack in Homesh violence in Judea and Samaria has significantly increased. The number of clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli security forces has risen, and friction between Palestinians and Jewish settlers has increased as well.
Concerning the Homesh community, INN also reported on Tuesday that Israeli security forces on demolished a number of unauthorized structures built in an outpost community established on the site of a former Israeli town in northern Samaria.
Residents of living at the Homesh outpost, built near the ruins of the former Israeli town of the same name which was evacuated as part of the 2005 Disengagement Plan, reported Tuesday morning that a large number of police units and IDF forces have been dispatched to the area, demolishing a number of buildings.
INN reported that in addition, Israeli security forces dismantled the electrical network set up in the outpost to serve the Homesh Yeshiva – an electrical system which had been in place for years, residents said.
Police also removed a number of tents used by supporters who recently took up residence in Homesh in support of the outpost community.
This is the second demolition operation carried out in Homesh since the deadly terror attack near Homesh last month which claimed the life of Dimentman, as was reported by INN.
On December 8th, the Jerusalem Post reported that a 14-year-old Palestinian girl stabbed a 26-year-old Israeli woman who was walking with her children in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. The victim was rushed to a hospital with stab wounds in her back.
The attack carried out by a teenage girl, was the sixth attack in or around Jerusalem in the past month, as was reported by the JPost.
Though the teenage girl is not affiliated with any terrorist group, as was reported by the JPost, Hamas praised the attack and pointed to it as the continuation of the First Intifada that broke out 34 years ago.
The JPost also reported that the 2015 “stabbing intifada” in Israel began with Palestinians – mainly youth – stabbing, running over and shooting Israeli soldiers, civilians and even tourists in a wave of violence in Judea, Samaria and all of Israel. There were almost daily attacks in the winter of 2015-16 before the violence decreased.
On December 16th, INN reported that a 34-year-old security guard was seriously injured in a ramming attack at the Te’enim crossing in Samaria, near Tulkarm.
The terrorist who was driving the vehicle, a 16-year-old, was shot and killed by security guards at the crossing.
INN reported that the security guard was evacuated by Magen David Adom paramedics to Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense said that “at 1:20, a 16-year-old terrorist collided with a checkpoint at the entrance to the crossing and hit one of the security guards, who was seriously injured. Additional security guards responded quickly, shot the terrorist and neutralized him. The security guard is being treated at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer, and as far as is known, his life is not in danger.”
INN reported that according to eyewitnesses, the terrorist came from the direction of Avnei Hefetz and sped with his vehicle into the checkpoint, hit the security guard and injured him. Security guards who were at the scene opened fire at the vehicle and eliminated the terrorist.
On December 21st, it was reported by INN that according to an IDF spokesperson, a terrorist attempted to commit a car-ramming attack, near the community of Mevo Dotan in Samaria.
The terrorist approached a manned military post in his vehicle, accelerating as he neared the soldiers at the post. IDF troops fired at the vehicle to stop it and neutralized the terrorist, as was reported by INN.
The terrorist’s car then crashed into a military vehicle that was parked near the post, and both vehicles burst into flame at the collision. No IDF soldiers were reported injured.
On December 30th, A Palestinian man was sentenced to 21 years in prison for stabbing a man in a terror attack in the central city of Rosh Ha’ayin last year, as was reported by the Times of Israel.
Walid Mansour, from the town of Jenin, repeatedly stabbed Refael Levi, causing him seriously injuries, at a construction site in August 2020.
According to a statement from Israeli police, this past Sunday, January 2nd, Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef will be charged in the coming days in an Israeli military court for incitement to terror and supporting a terror group, as was reported by the Times of Israel.
Yousef, a senior figure in Hamas’s “West Bank” division, is seen as a relative moderate in the terror group’s apparatus, according to the TOI report. Since helping found the Hamas terror movement in the 1980s, Yousef has been arrested numerous times and spent years in Israeli prisons, much of it in administrative detention.
TOI also reported that Israeli forces arrested Yousef in mid-December, one of dozens of Palestinians picked up in operations following a wave of terror attacks. In the announcement on Sunday, police tied Yousef’s arrest to a speech he gave following an attack by a Hamas member in Jerusalem’s Old City.
(Sources: IsraelNationalNews.com, TimesofIsrael.com, JPost.com)
(Additional reporting by Fern Sidman)
